Eden Scott, head of the student council at Taihape Area School, has taken the lead on behalf of TAS students and joined many other young New Zealanders helping Volunteer Service Abroad (VSA) celebrate 50 years of international volunteering.

As of yesterday, Eden is selling hand-woven friendship bracelets for VSA Project Friendship 2012. Funds from these sales will go towards VSA volunteers working with young people on issues such as child rights, HIV and AIDS, and the environment in Melanesia, Polynesia and East Timor.

She said the student council agreed it would be a great idea to take part in the VSA project after being approached.

“There was a really good response from everyone. I expect to sell out very quickly and have to order more,” Eden said.

Schools taking part, join Project Friendship ambassador, hip hop and soul artist Ladi6 who has personal experience of the power of volunteering. As a teenager she spent a year living in Tanzania where her parents worked as VSA volunteers and where she learned guitar and wrote her first song.

The students involved with the project are learning how New Zealand volunteers work alongside people in the wider Pacific, supporting them to build a better future for themselves and their families.

Ms Scott said there was an interest from senior students to learn more about VSA and volunteering. They were finding the young peoples' blogs on the VSA website very interesting. “Perhaps this is something that will keep going at TAS next year and the years following,” Ms Scott said.

The bracelets are produced under fair trade conditions at the Nga Centre, an organisation that supports young people with disabilities in Vietnam.

The funky, colourful bracelets cost $3 each and Eden will be selling them in the TAS Hub at lunchtime throughout the week. They are also on sale at Taihape New World, Alex Wong's and the Z service station at Waiouru.